I was wondering how this phrase has become so widely used and accepted in common language.
Not only is it said without embarrassment in polite circles it is also used on the airwaves as if it were
Ah Shucks.
As an older person i have always assumed it derived from anti homosexual sentiments and was a manner
of saying something was as bad as someone who sucked a penis. Did i get this all wrong? and if so
why else would sucking be associated with something bad?

2009/05/227:41pm

harmonicpies

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Since I can’t really remember a time when, “that sucks,” wasn’t in common use – at least among my general age group – it’s never occurred to me to wonder about the original meaning. My favorite (and often used) variation is, “Sucks to be you!”

Perhaps it has to do with being on the providing end, as opposed to the receiving end, of the service?

2009/05/237:15am

Grant Barrett

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The sexual origin is not not the original meaning. An article about it from USA Today contains a quote that is spot-on: “The word sucks was an innocent word that developed a powerful and vulgar sexual connotation related to the taboo subject of fellatio.” A fairly informed conversation about it can be found here. Comments by Ben Zimmer are especially good.

as always, thanks for your insight. Though I must say ‘fellatio’ is hardly an equivalent to the male homosexual behavior.
When i hear fellatio i assume it to be heterosexual and ok. Homosexuals ‘suck’ each other and that has traditionally not been ok at all and in fact quite a disgusting thought to many.

2009/05/256:50pm

Tom M

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I can remember being editor of the school newspaper in 1969. The drama department was staging a version of Dracula. I wrote a headline: Dracula Sucks Tonight. Predictably, the headline was vetoed by the newspaper’s faculty advisor.

2009/05/258:20pm

Glenn

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We can hope their choice was to avoid the potential misunderstanding that it was a bad production.

2009/05/267:44pm

ArteNow

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While driving through Keokuck, IA many years ago…mid-80s probably…I saw one of those make-your-own signs (with the letter cards that can be moved around to write any message you want) at a car wash that said “Our vacuums really suck!”

It wasn’t at ground level, you’d have had to have one of those special long poles to change the sign, so I don’t think it was a case of a smart aleck passer-by.

It certainly was attention-getting. I did a double-take to make sure I’d read it correctly.

Arte

2009/05/275:29am

Glenn

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Creativity rarely survives a committee.

2009/08/173:37pm

johng423

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Who was it that said, “The only thing a committee can ever agree on is beige”?

2009/11/109:54am

dieverdog

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I remember as a kid hearing someone (another kid) use this word in a derogatory way, but they said “that sucks air” kind of like something that was dying, gasping for air… meaning whatever it was- was really lame. As I got older I understood that there was the sexual connotation but I guess on some level I assumed that maybe that came later. Were we as kids putting another mis-interpretation to the word or was there some type of evolution to the meaning I wonder?

2009/11/103:46pm

lux rationis

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While the USA Today article debunks one sex-origin myth, it perpetuates another: that “jazz” and “rock n’ roll” can be traced to African-American slang terms for sexual intercourse. There are too many voids in the chain of etymology to confirm this. It’s a plausible contention, but it requires a broad leap of faith and a studied disregard for other more innocuous explanations.